We're Not So Different

folks, we're back with part 6 of the Medieval Land Management series and we're talking about how they dealt with water. first, we talk about Mesopotamian ghosts for a bit then get into Medieval aquaculture, including irrigation, wells, catchment in arid places, how water built civilization, and why rich people ruin everything.

folks, we're back to our series on Medieval Land Management with part 5 on forestry. we talk the Medieval obsession with beavers, coppicing, more coppicing, the staggering amount of land dedicated to producing firewood/charcoal in Eurasia, fire maintenance, controlled forest burnings, and an intensive study on forest management in Moravia. enjoy!

folks, we had take a short break from our Medieval Land Management series due to some scheduling complications (don't worry, it will continue next week) and so we did a mailbag instead. we usually do at least one mailbag episode a month to catch up on the mountain of questions we have from patrons. if you want to ask us questions, please subscribe for just $5 a month. this time, we cover everything from cobblestone streets to cadaver synods to the Florentine Vice to Gilles de Rais, Medieval beach trips, performative masculinity maxxing, and more.

folks, in our 4th episode on Medieval Land Management, we talk about more types of farming. this time, moving to Asia and the Americas to talk the 2 other great Medieval staple crops: rice and maize. we begin in China where rice was domesticated and turned from a dry and crop into a semi-aquatic one about 6,000 years ago. we talk about the spread of rice, how rice paddies work, and how the Song Dynasty used Champa rice to experience a population boom. then we turn to the Americas to talk about maize, its domestication from tiosente, the Three Sisters agricultural program and the milpa system.

folks, in the third episode in our series on Medieval Land Management, we talk about how Medieval farming recovered in Italy after the fall of Western Rome, how migrants from both East and West influenced Central European land management and agricultural practices, and why all of these Medieval European farming innovations owe a whole lot more to the Islamic world and specifically the Arab Agricultural Revolution than most would care to admit. also talk of settlement hierarchies and why nomadic peoples eventually adopt sedentism in almost every case.